Bullet Train Lessons In Past Rail Projects

March 16, 1998|By CLIFFORD FRAME

Editorial writer Tom Kelly's column on the so-called bullet train Feb. 13 was a breath of fresh air. There is an elite group not only here, but across the country who are forever scheming to find more ways to extort tax dollars out of the individual who earns them, until the working man has nothing left to show for his hard work. Mass transportation proponents are in that group. Why don't they go out and do an honest day's work instead of attempting to deceive and fleece the public?

I lived in Dade County when the referendum was held on MetroRail. The vote was 50 percent for and 49.5 percent against. After the referendum, it was revealed that Merret Stierheim and John Dyer had withheld information that would have affected the outcome of the referendum, and there would have been no MetroRail. Was another referendum held? The elites had achieved their purpose. Shortly after that, John Dyer went to Los Angeles to torment those poor souls. And, it wasn't too long before Stierheim resigned.

Part of the rosy revenue forecast was based on riders paying $5 a day to park their cars in MetroRail parking lots, plus the fare. It didn't fly. With MetroRail, one was expected to drive seven or eight miles east, park a car and get on the train. Passengers would travel seven or eight miles north and then be dumped into an undesirable and unsafe area, with no means to get to their final destination.

When Tri-Rail as sold to the public, it was under the guise of a temporary means of transportation while Interstate 95 was being widened. We were told it would be for three years. Three years have passed, and Tri-Rail is still an anchor around the neck of the taxpayers. The propagandists were predicting 26 lanes of traffic on I-95 with their scare tactics. Now comes the bullet train, and who knows how many millions of taxpayer dollars have already been wasted on that nightmare? Reduce all the rosy forecasts of revenues by about 95 percent and you will be close to the reality of revenue production.

Mass transit has always been a loser for the taxpayers as far back as I can remember and that's a lot more than 20 or 25 years. The demographics of South Florida just will not support MetroRail, Tri-Rail or a bullet train. Most people live in single-family homes, not at apartments that contain enough residents to make up a whole city, as in New York and other large metropolitan areas.

What is wrong with another north/south ``limited access'' road in the vicinity of University Drive? That would be far more palatable to all of us. The author is a resident of Oakland Park. He wrote this for the Sun-Sentinel.